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The first thing I did when I got my MPB was install chrome. Didn't even try out safari. One day I opened it just cus and looked at reddit. Safari felt so much smoother that I couldn't go back to Chrome.

I don't know. Safari is great, but after a few months of usage it always grinds down to a halt (frequent crashes, excessive reloading when using the back button etc.). The only thing that helps at that point is a reïnstall of OS X or a non-point update of Safari (clearing cache etc. does not help).

Chrome is slightly slower and less polished, but it's performance doesn't decrease over time.

I am pretty sure that whatever version of webkit is not proprietary (1) due to licensing issues, this is still under the LGPL or something from Konqueror and (2) because Chrome is based off of Chromium, which is completely open source.

Lots of Webkit was required to be open source, but not all. I guess it is possible that google didn't have to release their went source, but chrome should be almost entirely based on Chromium, which just lacks built in flash and a lot of the google services integration. Other than that, the two are almost identical.

Apple released WebKit2 in 2010 to mimic Chrome's multi-process sandboxing feature. Can you explain the advantages of WebKit2 over WebKit from a consumer standpoint?

Chrome tracks everything you do IF you allow it to. At least Google is forward about what information they keep about you, and allows you to manage that info. The same can't be said about Apple.

Chrome also has built-in Flash support IF you need it. Comes in handy for those websites that haven't made the jump to HTML5 yet, but it doesn't get in the way on other sites.

Can you explain how Safari is safer and more "pure" than Chrome? Google has essentially built and facilitated the web as we know it, so I feel completely safe using their browser. They have an extremely active development community and provide updates to Chrome more regularly than Apple updates Safari.